GrooveOut

by Gregg Shapiro

BROADWAY HER WAY

Linda Eder spurns gender roles in her latest show-tune collection

Linda Eder’s devoted fans know that she has a way with songs written by her husband, Frank Wildhorn. They also know that, from “Over the Rainbow” to “One for My Baby” to “Son of a Preacher Man,” she can breathe new life into a lived-in song. On her latest CD, Broadway My Way (Atlantic), Eder allows us to cast away our pre-conceived notions about songs usually performed by male characters in Broadway musicals, as she takes her turn with a few. Her refreshing and bold renditions of “I Am What I Am,” “Anthem,” “On the Street Where You Live,” and “What Kind of Fool Am I?,” to name a few, are ablaze with Eder’s passionate performances.

A Houston favorite since her break-out performance in Jekyll & Hyde, which premiered at the Alley Theatre, Eder has also re-recorded a few songs, including “Unusual Way” and “A New Life,” and to the delight of many, she has finally recorded “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” a song that her followers have long requested she include on CD.

Gregg Shapiro: In the liner notes to Broadway My Way, you say, “Once I made the choice to sing songs normally done by men, a whole world of glorious songs opened up to me.” What did you discover about songs such as “On the Street Where You Live,” “What Kind of Fool Am I?,” and “The Impossible Dream,” for instance?

Linda Eder: They’re songs that you think you’re not supposed to sing because they’re written for a specific gender, and really written for that gender lyrically. So you stay away from these glorious songs. “What Kind of Fool Am I?” has got to be one of the best songs I’ve ever sung. It’s fun for me to sing it. I love what it feels like and where it goes and the power of it.

One of the songs, “I Am What I Am,” [from La Cage Aux Folles] was sung by a woman, Gloria Gaynor, in a 1984 disco version.

I just learned that myself since I’ve done it. I don’t think I’d ever heard the version. I used to sing that one years and years ago when I was first starting out, but I hadn’t done it since then. I’ve always liked the song, and when we decided to do this album, of course it was one of my first choices.

Do you think that show tunes lend themselves to more varieties of interpretations, more than any other types of songs?

It’s still music. It’s still notes. It doesn’t matter what kind of song it is. You might take a pop song and take it totally out of its pop feel. I think that Broadway songs are more theatrical in nature, so they lend themselves to live performance better.

You mentioned the significance of the song “Anthem” [from Chess] in a “post-9/11 world.” Would you agree that it also speaks to the current political climate as we prepare to go war?

Totally. Absolutely. I think about that all the time now. I have a few songs in my repertoire, like “If I Had My Way,” and the more and more that stuff is happening in the world, the song becomes more relevant.

A lot of people are going to be happy that you recorded “Don’t Rain on My Parade,” even though you vowed that you would never record it. What was involved in your decision to finally record it?

Fan pressure [laughs]. Totally. They wanted it, so I said, “All right. Fine. Here.” [Laughs]

The arrangement of “Edelweiss,” by Jeremy Roberts and Kim Scharnberg, is very contemporary, with synthesizers and all. Why did you choose to do an untraditional arrangement for this song?

Because it’s such a small song in terms of it being very short. I used to do it live where I would do it very slowly and intimately with a guitar. It’s pretty that way, but in order to get something out of it and make it fit the format of Broadway My Way, which was taking some songs and bending their arrangements, we thought we’d have some fun with it. We conceived it sort of like Enya-weiss [laughs]. I tracked my vocals 35 times—just layer upon layer to get that sound.

“Gold,” which was also on your 2002 CD of the same title, is presented again on Broadway My Way. Why did you choose to include that song, from the forthcoming show Camille Claudel, on this CD?

When I first recorded it for the Gold album, I didn’t know that much about Camille. I hadn’t done the piece yet. Since that time, we did a fully rehearsed reading, and I read more books about Camille. I’d also taken private acting lessons to get ready for the reading. I felt like I knew so much more about Camille, and I finally understood more where the song came from. As I was performing it live, that character came in. I don’t hear that on the Gold album. It’s more just me singing a great song on that album. Now I feel more in touch with Camille, and I wanted to re-do it.

With the popularity of Chicago, there is the notable absence of a Kander and Ebb song on the CD. Was there one that you were considering for this CD or would consider for a future album?

Sure, I love their material. But there are so many songs, and because we were limited, we had to keep it to 13 tracks. I was also trying to pick songs that aren’t necessarily found on every other Broadway album. That influenced some of my choices. It was a compromise, really.

Do you think that there is enough good material for you to do an Off-Broadway My Way CD?

That’s an interesting idea. I think this is going to be part of a series. I think my record company liked the Broadway My Way concept that I’d come up with. Hopefully, if things continue to go well, this will be volume one and we will continue to do more. I think maybe if we do an Off-Broadway My Way [laughs], it’d be an interesting thing to try down the road. I’m sure there are many great songs to fill several albums with that kind of material.

Pop culture journalist Gregg Shapiro is also a published fiction writer and poet. He has a poem in the new collection, Sweet Jesus (Anthology Press).

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